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Vizard 8 » Reference » Vizconnect » Advanced GUI » Advanced GUI

8.1

Advanced GUI

Use the advanced window to select and configure components individually.

Component Tabs

Hardware Tabs

• Trackers: A tracker reports position and/or orientation information. This can be a physical device (e.g PPT, inertia cube) or a virtual tracker that simulates data (e.g. keyboard, mouse)
• Displays: This can be a standard monitor, 3D monitor, HMD, projection wall, CAVE, or any other display that Vizard supports.
• Inputs: An input device has some detectable state change or provides some signal trigger (e.g. button, wand)

Software Tabs

• Transports: Transports move the user around the environment. They are similar to trackers in providing position and orientation information. However, transports are completely virtual. For example, with the Grappling Hook transport the user can point to a location in the environment and fly there in moments. Although the user has not physically moved, their position in the virtual environment has been updated.
• Avatars: An avatar represents the user in the virtual environment. The avatar can be visualized from either a 1st or 3rd person point of view and is animated using tracking data and inverse kinematics. Optionally the avatar can be hidden in which case only hand(s) are rendered for tasks such as grabbing.
• Tools: Virtual objects for manipulating the environment. Tools are designed to be anything which interacts with the environment.  Some examples of tools include grabbing, measuring, and highlighting.
• Events: Events are Vizconnect functions triggered by input signals.

Scene Graph

The scene graph tree displays the component hierarchy. Drag and drop components to modify their parent/child relationships.

Status Window

When an input device, tracker, or transport is the current selection the Status Window can be opened. For inputs, the last signal received from the device is shown. For trackers and transports, the current position and orientation is shown. This can be helpful to verify that the connection has been established and the data being sent to Vizard is accurate.

Generated Code

The Vizard code generated by Vizconnect is saved to the configuration file. Any time components are added, removed, or modified the code will automatically update. Manually editing the code is rarely necessary but possible by opening the file in the Vizard editor. If the code is modified in Vizard it can be loaded back into the GUI for further editing.

Note: Generally, components are accessed via the script that imports the configuration file. For example, in order to apply tracking data to a model in the scene, the programmer would get a handle to the tracker in the script and link the model to it.